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Guest Post: Cas Webb

ALL ABOUT AUDIO BOOKS, THE TYPES, NARRATORS AND (NOT) BEING CAREFUL ON WHO MIGHT OVERHEAR... 

I love a brand new, crisp smelling, straight off the press novel, but I just haven’t managed to master reading whilst riding a bike, taking the dogs for a walk or pretending to study. (Please send any hints on how you do this to caswebb.wordpress.com!)
In the mean time I’m here to offer the solution; audio books.

Here’s how audio books work, in a nutshell, someone sits down and reads out the book you’re mad about so you can download it and listen, hands-free, straight from your Ipod or Iphone (and probably other devices too).

‘Full caste Audio’ means different people will read the different characters, giving you a real feel for the story.

Different narrators appeal to different people, some read faster than others and so on. My all time favourite narration is of Terry Pratchet’s Going Postal, read by Stephen Briggs. Just to give you an idea that particular audio book took nearly eleven straight hours to listen to. I was completely trapped in Pratchet’s Discworld and the tale which involved putting a con man in charge of the failed postal service and watching everything from the invention of the stamp to the employment of great big clay men unfold.

‘Abridged’ means the text has been edited or shortened and ‘Unabridged’ means the book will be read exactly as it comes in print. Currently I am one hour and fifty-eight minutes into Suzanne Collin’s Catching Fire (with roughly ten hours to go). Catching Fire is part two of The Hunger Games and my version is wonderfully read by Carolyn McCormick. This was my life saver on a recent family camping trip, where books were just too bulky to drag all over the Australian countryside. I can’t spoil the ending of this one because I don’t know it yet, but so far I am being immersed in the interesting, and complicated, after effects of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellar winning the games in the previous novel. The tone of the narrators voice, and the emotions they portray, weaves another dimension of life into the story.

I am so hooked on this type of storytelling medium I have even begun playing with it on my own novels. You just might catch the results on http://lifefamilymagic.wordpress.com in the future.

Drop ‘audio books’ into google and you’ll get about 649,000,000 results including:

www.audiobooksdirect.com.au

http://shop.abc.net.au/t/formats/cd/audiobooks

www.theaudiobookstore.com

www.audible.com

Now, I’m not endorsing these companies just giving you a few places to start your own search. The only one I’ve used is Audible and I’m quite happy with my subscription which gives me one book a month for somewhere around $15 a month and discounts on additional purchases. I use my Iphone, mostly because I am addicted to it, and whenever the radio is playing up or I can’t get to sleep I always have a book handy (which has only enhanced my Iphone addiction, am I the only one?).

I do have a tale of warning, before I let you explore the joys of Audio books for yourself.
In my previous job, cleaning cabins, I did have a problem with getting tangled up in the headphone cords, it is very frustrating when you’re in the middle of the action and you accidently rip the earpiece out and send the headphones flying across the room, so I discarded them. Instead I played my selection of books at full volume whilst I washed and mopped and made beds. There was no one else around, no one to annoy, and the hours did get very boring without something to occupy my mind. This was right around the release of Fifty Shades Of Grey. Which I will add is not a young adult novel – it is a very adult novel – however with all the hype and media coverage I am sure the fact that it contains adult content is not new to you. So there I was, at eleven O’clock at night, completely wrapped in the story and forgetting that as soon as I left the cabin everyone else could hear it too. I finished my shift, walked through the workplace and began unloading my cleaning equipment in the store room. Suddenly I realised that I was not alone... everyone (including guests who were trying to sleep!) could hear the very mature content being read aloud from my phone – which was tucked into my bra strap for safe keeping. I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard, felt so ashamed and gone so red all at once!

So enjoy audio books, but be careful who might over hear you and watch out for their addictive nature!


Just a quick thanks to Cas Webb for doing this Guest Post! And check out her amazing sites!

Read her book, Life, being posted chapter by chapter here:
http://lifefamilymagic.wordpress.com/

Kemla’s a teenager living in the Summer’s Mountains. She’s quick witted, not shy of action and smart but life outside the protective circle where she lives is all but beyond her reach. Then one day she’s kidnapped by slave traders, helped by magic and learns to trust. All the while she’s trying to avoid her past. Kemla has an uncanny magical connection with her partner in crime, her horse, together they are so strong that in intense moments their souls join and two become one. Magic isn’t just a part of her life, it is who she is. FireMagic runs through her veins, the lightning has always called to her. How is it that until now she’s didn’t even know she had magic? Perhaps because magic is far from considered a gift in Summers Realm, it’s a curse and is punishable by death.

What man could love such a wild child?

In this book romance is a theme from the beginning. Kemla is seventeen, of marrying age, but first she needs to learn that not every man is out to harm her. Not every man is like her da. She meets her guy, saves his sister from a bandit attack, and still can’t speak the truth of her own past.

“My family’s wanted for murder. I am wanted for the death and torture of a noble family, children and a woman too.”

This project began when I was thirteen years old, though admittedly it looked different then. There were endless pages of world building and maps covering my bedroom walls. I wonder what my mother thought of it all?

It has been picked up and put down over many years. Life. Magic. Family are the first 3 books in the Kemla trilogy.

In this series the characters endure alienation, pain, the confusion of love and the devastation of loosing family but generally speaking they are ‘clean’ books. There is some romance but nothing graphic. This series is set in a mythical world, sometimes it pokes fun at our world and also at our politics or religions or laws. Just remember that it is fiction.

And check out her other sites!

http://mummyonalearningcurve.wordpress.com/

http://caswebb.wordpress.com/


cas webb 1199859971299957203

Post a Comment

  1. Thank you so much for sharing this post.
    Very well written.

    ReplyDelete

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